yeah, I didn't notice much of a difference with the clay bar. the paint cleaner definitly made a noticeable difference. Any ways heres the results.

 

After the paint cleaner, if you want more depth, add in a light polish. Like I said, from a looks stand point, clay bar really won't change the paints appearence overall. It's the many steps I (and many detailers) take that make the paint look great and feel great. Skipping steps may get the paint 90% of the way there. Many customers don't know the benefits of a full detail until we do it, and they are amazed. Hooked. A guy ina 750iL knew his stuff, and wanted to know what clay barring was. I showed him on the IS300 I was doing (it wasn't a full detail, wash, 2 step wax, not clay barring) and he was amazed, and said he wouldn't have it done any other way. It's all in what you want, but it definitely has its benefits if your car is a few years old and has never been done before.

BTW: Your car looks awesome.

 

i was told on some of the newer cars you aren't supposed to clay it? i just got a new 2000 RL in the family... dont' wanna ruin her

 

I do believe RL's are still oil based paint...actually, you can tell quite a difference in paint quality between RL's and lesser Acuras.

However, unless something is in the clay from you dropping it or getting it in there, there is no way the clay bar itself will cause damage to the paint. It is non-abrassive.

Now, you can run a search on autopia.org, maybe make a post and ask there if you still don't feel good about it, but I've clayed various cars and nothing horrible as went wrong. Always improvements.

Ask Chanc, he clayed for the first time a week or so ago and he wasn't sure of it. It really is very easy. I wouldn't post here unless I was trying to help out a little.

 

I don't know if it was the weather or what ( dry air ) but the detailing spray that is used with the clay bar would start to dry almost instantly. It made it really hard because i would be spraying while running the clay bar and a towel around my neck to dry it off as fast as possible before it dried ( residue didn't want to come off when dry ) which was a bit clumsy to juggle all three at the same time. Maybe if I had more practice with 'claying' i would like it better but honstly i don't think my car really needed to be 'clayed.'

On a side note I was really impressed with the Meguiar's paint cleaner. It's there first step in their three step system ( polish= step 2, finishing wax=step3). I will probably just pick up the other two bottles and do the three steps in there system.



redgoober4life: thanks for the compliment, and the detailing tips. Cleared up a lot of things for me. Thank you.

 

Try #9 and #16 paste wax. #16 is much more durable then the regular cleaner wax, and #9 will polish off and fill in some imperfections.

You may have been trying to do too large of an area. At work I take a short cut. We use QEW so we don't need a hose (wash a panel, dry, wash a panel, dry). So I wash a panel, half dry it (doesn't have to be bone dry) and get it went again with the wash water. You could use your wash water as your lube, actually. This, of course, only works in the shade, and you have to work quick. You can even use the hose to lube the paint.

Is the rest of your car (the parts you didn't clay) as smooth as the part you did? I just have a hard time believing you didn't see some of the benefits of it. Maybe you were just frustrated.

 

if the spray was drying then either you weren't using enough, the surface was too hot or you were doing it out door and not in a garage under shade.

I've never had the spray dry on me quickly. Even in 100F heat as long as I was in the garage under shade.

 

I did notice a slight difference. The reason I'm saying it was waste of time for me was because of the time it took for such a small difference. I was hoping it would take care of a couple water spots I had on the hood from the washer nozzles but it didn't do a thing.

I did start off in small 1' x 1' sections but after taking forever on one section of the hood I gave up (got frustrated ) and just dedicated the clay bar to the front bumper and just skipped to the paint cleaner. Kind wished I had picked up the Meguair's (or some type) polish to really bring out the color.

 

You have such a small car, once you get used to claying it won't take long at all. It's the safest way to clean the paint of contamination. You could spray on solvents, but that wouldn't be good for the paint. Eventually, you'd start to see clear coat falure.

You know those Biore strips that are suppose to take our the black heads and on the commercial they say that it looks like a porcupine? Claying pulls out the small specs of...whatever...out of the paint kind of like that.

Paint "cleaners" are kind of misleading. They clean oxidation, and imperfections, chemically by disolving them, and breaking them down, but larger bits of contamination are still left lodged in the paint. If the paint isn't as smooth as glass, you're due for a claying. I think I'm getting redundant now though. I don't mean to baste you with this, I just disagree that it isn't a wasted step, although the results are sometimes not so easily seen with claying. More so--they are felt, to the touch.

 

:dunno: I was under the shade of a tree, and the car had a cool surface. At first I think I wasn't using enough, then I just keep spraying as I wiped the bar. The out sides of the spray would still dry out really fast.